Part 2 (2/2)
Kingsley replied to my request in aet ive them away I have written books myself since then, and have had many an application as unreasonable as that which I addressed to the author of ”Alton Locke”
This fact, perhaps, explains uished man administered to me
Very different, however, was the response of the Archbishop of Canterbury It was a courteous and dignified epistle, expressing his pleasure at being able to comply with my request, and fifteen handsome octavo volumes of sermons were forthwith forwarded to me from Hatchard's
I had other similar experiences, and the result was that when y which it contained far outweighed every other depart-room, and I was fortunately able to provide the of old sers I blush to say that I distinguishedthe play of _Macbeth_ to an unhappy audience of bored victiive me! I carried on my West End Institute for so penny bank in connection with it, and forent artisans of the district; but at last the building anted for an extension of the Sunday schools connected with ation, and the little performance ca, but I fear that it did not do anybody very h, perhaps, it kept some out of mischief
No account of Newcastle at this period (1850-60) would be complete without some reference to one of its most notable inhabitants, Mr Joseph Cowen, commonly known at that time to his fellonsmen as ”Joe” Mr
Cowen's subsequent career in Parliaained for him a reputation for eloquence hardly inferior to that enjoyed by the most illustrious of his contemporaries But in those early days of my youth it was not his eloquence but his advanced opinions about which his fellonsht most He openly professed to be a Republican, in theory at all events, and all his syed on the side of the oppressed nationalities of Europe Aabilities, and of considerable wealth, he lived by choice in the plainest fashi+on, delighting to be known as one of the people He dressed at all times in the kind of suit which a Northumbrian pitman wears when not actually at work Years afterwards, when he had just thrilled all England by a great speech in the House of Commons on the subject of Russian oppression, I chanced toto talk to hilances of curiosity which were cast at the strangely attired hfare
Nor was it only in his dress that he affected a likeness to the working-erated the burr of the Newcastle tongue Most of us were anxious to get rid of that undesirable distinction Mr Cowen clung to it as one of the most precious of his possessions He had to pay for this piece of affectation in later life, when he becaure in the House of Commons His first notable speech in that assembly was on the Royal titles Bill of Mr Disraeli It was a very brilliant perforreatly admired by those ere able to appreciate it But, unfortunately, it was not understood by everybody
The day after it was delivered, Mr Disraeli was questioned at a dinner-party by a lady, who asked hiht of the new orator whose presence had been revealed to the House ”I'm sorry I can't answer your question,” said the Prientleot up on the Opposition side and reat enthusiasm in a certain part of the House; but, unfortunately, he spoke in a language I had never heard, and I haven't the slightest idea in the world what he said”
But in the days of which I a way from the House of Commons His fame, however, was even then of no co to befriend, not merely with speech and pen, but with purse, every victim of political oppression By the despotic Governments of the Continent he was held in feverish hatred, and at one tiularly watched by French, Russian, and Austrian spies; nor was it without good reason that the tyrants of Europe saw in him their natural eneees from the countries I have named and from Italy found a welco press on which thousands of revolutionary proclaes of Europe had been printed Mazzini, Garibaldi, Kossuth, Felice Orsini, and scores of other notable revolutionaries whose nah his influence a large party of us in Newcastle were led to take almost as warm an interest in political affairs on the Continent as in the ain in those days, when France was crushed under the heel of the Second E in her cruel bonds, when Hungary was filled with the spirit of rebellion, and when the people of Italy were taking their first steps by the intricate paths of conspiracy and insurrection towards unity and freedo a publicin the old Lecture Rooht listen to sos, or give expression to our own detestation of the despotished upon Europe, froa
No impressionable youth could fail to be affected by such an influence as this, and if in those days I shrank fro too advanced, I was one of the most enthusiastic of his adherents in his self-appointed ainst the tyrannies of the Continent Hoell do I reures of Mr
Cowen's friends and guests! I can still see Kossuth with his grey hair and wrinkled brow, and Mazzini with his melancholy eyes and handsome face; I can still hear the tones of Louis Blanc as he stands on the platforlish of the epoch of the Great Revolution But the one ure dwell reat Italian who, after a lifetime spent in the attempt to deliver Tuscany and Louillotine in Paris, and by his death secured for Italy her long-sought freedom Orsini caeon at Mantua, and addressed a great lish fairly well; but it was the appearance of the e of all that he had suffered in the struggle for Italian freedom, that appealed to one more eloquently than his words Never had I seen any man whose appearance equalled that of this Italian martyr who died as an assassin His features were almost faultless, whilst his jet-black hair set off the lustrous pallor of his complexion with extraordinary effectiveness Attired in fashi+onable evening dress, his hands encased in white kid gloves, and a s up his beautiful face, he looked the last man in the world whom one would naturally associate with desperate deeds Yet, not ht about the terrible attempt upon the life of the Eh the Rue Lepelletier, Paris, by whichin prison under sentence of death Mr Cowen once toldout Orsini's plot against Louis Napoleon's life, but he did so in absolute ignorance of the fact that this was the purpose to which the money was to be appropriated
He understood that it anted for the equipainst the Austrians in Italy, and he willingly subscribed the amount asked for
As for Orsini, he met his death like a hero; but it is well known that before dying he succeeded, as a leadingfroed to that society, a proiving that promise, Louis Napoleon was delivered from the fear of violent death at the hands of the Carbonari, whilst his fulfilreat step towards unity and freedoe of history has never recorded a more notable transaction than that which thus took place in a conde under sentence of death and a reigning Eicide so absolutely as most of us do if there were many instances in which it had proved so successful as it did in the case of Orsini
I have dwelt at undue length on an episode which ether outside the scope of this narrative, but it does not lie quite so far apart froine It was my association as a boy with Mr Cowen's enthusiastic assertion of the rights of oppressed nationalities, and the stirring of my spirit which necessarily resulted froht, with men like Kossuth and Orsini, that first made me a real Liberal in politics
As I have hted little theatre--I n politics which I remember in it One was in 1857, when the Dissenters of Newcastle had revolted against the doeneral election had set up a candidate of their own They had great difficulty in finding one, for they required a man ould pay his own expenses (in those days a very serious item), and the chance of success was by no means brilliant At last, however, they secured a rich retired Bombay merchant, and he ca The Lecture Room was croith enthusiastic Nonconformists, and these were the words hich the unhappy candidate began his speech: ”Gentleo, if anybody had asked me where Newcastle-on-Tyne was, I could not have told them” This, to an audience full of the local pride which possessed the soul of every genuine Newcastleascertained where Newcastle was, Mr C speedily departed froain to be seen in its streets
More vivid still is my recollection of the Lecture Room on the occasion when Thackeray delivered his lectures on the Four Georges to an audience e when, as the author of ”Vanity Fair” himself has said, ”to behold Brown, the author of the last roht” Anybody who had written a book seemed to me to be a hero; as it then to see and to hear the literary idol of ure, his silvery hair, his upturned face, expressive and striking, though by no means beautiful, seemed toless than one of the Gods He was an admirable lecturer; his voice was ularly distinct and accurate, and the little touches of sarcasm and humour which he conveyed to his audience by a tone or an inflection, quite inie the Third--by far the best of the series--someone near ht nothing less than an act of sacrilege I never saw the great novelist except on the occasion of his visit to Newcastle, but to the end of ht thus to have beheld hih never in the Lecture Roos made upon me the impression produced by Thackeray's lectures The actor and the arts of the popular entertainer were too plainly visible in all that he did, and I received so written an enthusiastic but juvenile panegyric upon him on the occasion of one of his visits to Newcastle, I learned that he had sent his secretary to buy a dozen copies of the paper to send to his friends That so great a ht a ether incredible The reader ht quite so much of dickens, as a h was the pedestal upon which I had placed hie of human nature
CHAPTER III
MY LIFE-WORK BEGUN
On the Staff of the _Newcastle Journal_--In a Dilemma--Lord John Russell and Mr Gladstone at Newcastle-upon-Tyne--Mr Gladstone's Triuress--A Memorable Colliery Disaster--A Pit-Sinker's Herois
At last my term of probation came to an end My friend and teacher, Mr
Lowes, after a temporary absence from Newcastle, had returned to it to undertake the editorshi+p of the _Newcastle Journal_, a weekly Tory newspaper which was about to appear in a daily edition We had kept up our friendshi+p, and to ht he offered me the post of chief reporter on the daily paper This was in the spring of 1861 My father had coh, to the conclusion that I ly, on July 1st in that year, I entered on my career as a professional journalist On the previous day I had said good-bye to the WB Lead Office, and to Mr Fothergill, whose kindly interest in my fortunes had never wavered, and whose own literary tastes and sy like approval on the step I was taking Never was a young subaltern prouder of his first conised standing, however hulish Press
Nor was I without substantial reason for e in h in all conscience; but the drudgery of official routine, the strict keeping of office hours, and the monotony which made one day the counterpart of any other, were noof anyone who is young and high-spirited All this was now at an end No special hours had to be kept, and no two days were the same Instead of the four walls of my office, I now had the whole of the northern counties as ht hich onat the _Journal_ office I set off, in company with the reporters of the _Chronicle_ and the _Express_, to report the Quarter Sessions at Hexham A poor task no doubt it was, but it involved a journey up the beautiful Tyne valley, and a glie fro I felt that I had recovered s The readiness hich I adapted s, the zest hich I entered into the friendshi+ps of , at all events, of the Bohemian in my nature Of the public events of that year, 1861, there is comparatively little to be said I re for the first time as sub-editor in the temporary absence ofthat the first shot had been fired in the American War Some two or three months later Newcastle was favoured with a visit from Lord John Russell, who had recently accepted an earldoreat banquet in the Town Hall, whereat all the Whig notabilities of the North of England assembled to do him honour Now, in my days, provincial reporters were an unsophisticated race To a young journalist, living in Newcastle, the journalisht as well have been in another planet The sight of a reporter for one of the London dailies e-inspiring, and the notion of being called upon to work in the co almost took one's breath away
It fell out that at the Russell banquet it was arranged that his speech should be reported in short ”turns” by the whole body of reporters present This is an arrangeet the report out quickly But in 1861 it was almost unknown on the provincial press, and this was my first experience of it
Perhaps I was unnerved by the presence of a couple of _Tie of shorthand was not then all that it should have been Be this as itreat statesman's speech I made one woeful blunder Lord Russell said (I quote from memory) thatin the New World that which had so often been seen in the Old--a struggle on the one side for empire and on the other for independence Now in the system of shorthand which I had learned, the word ”independence” is represented by an arbitrary sy of two dots, one above the other, like a colon When I canification of this particular sy me in the face from my note-book, but what it meant for raphme for my copy, and, worst of all, the reporters frowhat the delay uess, not at the ht take its place, and possibly pass unnoticed; so I represented Lord Russell as having said thatin the New World, e had often seen in the old, a struggle on the one side for empire, and on the other for power If it did not make absolute nonsense of the speaker's words, it certainly robbed the, and yet history is based upon blunders like this And years afterwards I saw in a certain volureat rebellion Never did anybody feel ain was I caught in a similar dilemma
Newcastle was very fond in those days of entertaining the distinguished stranger Lord Russell's visit in 1861 had been such a success that twelve months later the Liberals of the town resolved to invite Mr
Gladstone to be their guest Mr Gladstone was at that ti since he had ceased to be a Conservative; but already he had incurred the suspicions of a section of the Liberal Party, and the old Whigs of Northu to do with his visit to the Tyne But Mr Gladstone did not need the sympathy or countenance of the Brahmins of Liberalism He ca to compare with the enthusias the two days he spent ast them in October, 1862 I have said elsewhere that this visit was one of the turning-points in Mr Gladstone's life He hied this to me in after-days It was the first occasion in his career on which he had been brought into close contact with a great industrial community It was the first ti multitude of his fellow men On the first day of his visit he was entertained at a banquet in the Town Hall, and it was in his speech after dinner that he reat career The Civil War in America, to which Lord Russell had alluded twelveI need hardly say that the sympathies of the upper classes were enthusiastically with the South The naht have been counted upon one's fingers Mr Gladstone believed in the cause of the Confederates, and in this speech at Newcastle he declared that Jefferson Davis had created not reat sensation Naturally enough, it aroused bitter indignation on the other side of the Atlantic, whilst the syrieved by it